Sustainable Antibiofouling Properties of Thin Film Composite Forward Osmosis Membrane with Rechargeable Silver Nanoparticles Loading

Microbial attachment and biofilm formation on filtration membrane can greatly compromise its flux and separation efficiency. Here, a simple and facile approach has been developed to in situ generate silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) on the thin film composite forward osmosis (TFC FO) membrane for sustainable antibiofouling performances. Mussel-inspired dopamine chemistry was applied to grow polydopamine coating on both surfaces of FO membranes, followed by the generation of Ag NPs upon a simple dip coating in silver nitrate aqueous solution. Furthermore, the Ag NPs deposited membranes had a long-term silver release profile with rechargability for multiple times upon their depletion, and exhibited strong sustainable bactericidal efficacy against Gram-negative bacteria and Gram-positive bacteria. The Ag NPs had a controllable effect on the membrane performances including the water flux and reverse salt flux in the FO test mode. Our practicable antibacterial strategy may apply to other types of filtration membranes with diverse material surfaces and may pave a new way to achieve the sustainable membrane antibiofouling performance on a large scale.